Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 17, 2010:
Director general of Police, Manipur, Y Joykumar today said that the insurgent groups of Manipur were devoid of ideologies.
Speaking to a team of national media arriving here on a three-day visit to the state, the DGP said that the insurgent outfits operating in the state have diverted from their ideologies of being revolutionaries.
Instead, they are engaging in extortion from the general public and government officials.
DGP Joykumar further said that if Manipur was still a state ruled by monarch, the developments being witnessed in the present-day might have been missing.
The people of the state are getting light of education because of being a state of democratic Indian Union.
He said, in the backdrop that the state was an independent princely state, the insurgents were waging war against the Indian Union.
He described the struggle of the insurgents as a �bloody grave�.
He also pointed out that the insurgents were giving a lot of obstacles and causing disturbances in developmental works and economic activities.
People are not aware of how much destructive activities had been done by the insurgents, the DGP said.
They are hindering utilisation of natural resources of the state to make it an economically independent state.
Many big projects taken up in the state could not be completed due to heavy extortion demands to the implementing agencies and authorities, the DGP went on to say.
He revealed two reasons behind the ability of the insurgents to carry out their activities claiming that they get people�s support, and earned funds by way of extortion.
He said that the insurgents in the state are not bound by their own definite principles but carrying out extortion, killing and racket, etc.
In short, earning money by harassing and threatening individuals has become their indispensable activities, he told the visiting media persons.
Besides, with the mushrrooming up of innumerable factions of the outfits, factional clashes occur resulting in killing each other.
The KYKL was formed by a faction coming out of the UNLF.
Again, defectors of KYKL formed the KYKL (MDF) and were killing each other.
The insurgents are using widows in delivering their demand letters, transporting arms and ammunitions, etc.
he pointed out.
If they are kept separated from the general people and extortion menace is curbed significantly, the insurgents will not be able to operate on the soil of the state, the DGP asserted.
The only way to bring an end to insurgency in the state is talks on the table.
With the signing of Suspension of Operation (SoO), the Kuki underground outfits have been brought to the negotiating table.
Even though the NSCN (IM) and the NSCN (K) have signed ceasefire agreement with the Government of India, and peace talks are on, they are actively operating in the state and carrying out extortions on the National Highways 39 and 53 in the form of �tax� imposed by them to the general public.
With the intensification of counter insurgency operations by the Army, Assam Rifles and state police force, the insurgents could not set up their camps within the territory of the state.
As they use the Indo-Myanmar border as transit points for smuggling of arms and drugs, there is the strong need for fencing at the international boundary to block the routes, the DGP observed.
Once the border fencing, which had already started its ground works, is completed, 80 percent of the smuggling of arms and drug activities could be solved, Joykumar expressed.
Talking about the rehabilitation works taken up by the state for the surrendered insurgents, the DGP said that government had already allocated a land of 50 acres at Jiribam for construction of rehabilitation centre.
Facilities of vocational training and schooling will be provided in the Centre.
The national media team who arrived here today for three visit in the state is led by director of Union ministry of home affairs (media wing), Rabindra Singh.
Other members of the team includes special correspondent of Indian Express, Amitabh Sinha, reporter of Press Trust of India (PTI), principal correspondent of Times of India, Arun Dixit and ANI reporter etc.
They arirvere here in Imphal at about 9 am and joined with a media team of the state and proceeded to Moirang to enjoy the beauty of Loktak Lake.
On the way the media team held interaction with students and teachers of some schools.
The team visited rehabilitation centre at Lamphelpat and held interaction with the surrendered undergrounds lodging in the centre.